The amount of information communicated within networks, such as voice and data networks, has increased dramatically in recent years. Accordingly, such has resulted in demands for increased bandwidth in networks to communicate more information at increased rates of data transfer. As the demands for bandwidth of data communications continues to increase, improved devices and methodologies to accommodate the demands are desired.
One example of data transmission technology uses low power, high data rate and wavelength division multiplexing to achieve high bit rate data transmission. An exemplary implementation utilizes a relatively large number of optical sources at different wavelengths. However, such configurations can be relatively difficult to fabricate and relatively expensive to package.
Another solution has been to directly modulate light sources, such as laser diodes. However, the rate of modulation within such systems is less than desirable to accommodate the increasing bandwidth demands.
More specifically, conventional fiber optic communications systems typically rely on a separate source for each optical wavelength used in a wavelength division multiplexed system. However, as more and more optical wavelengths are used, larger numbers of active devices must be packaged in transmitter modules. Removing the heat from these devices constrains the package design and complicates the ability to inject high speed data signals into the devices. Also, since the optical sources are typically laser diodes, the performance of the sources varies significantly over temperature. In addition, data is encoded on each optical signal by modulation of the optical intensity at that wavelength.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved approach to generating frequency multiplexed optical signals.